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Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Liew Mun Leong’s Advice in Career & Life

I was reading “The
Edge Magazine” over the weekend and come across an article detailing the speech
of Mr. Liew Mun Leong to some 400
NUS graduates. Mr. Liew is the current chairman of Changi Airport Group and
ex-CEO of CapitaLand. He is rated one of the most successful CEO in this
region. In 2000, he became the founding President and CEO of CapitaLand limited
(merger between Pidemco & DBS Land), and later built it into one of Asia’s
largest Real Estate Companies.

I had extracted key
points of the article as follows, which summarizes Mr. Liew’s advice in career
and life for young graduates.

Build
Your Core Competencies

“Choose
the first job to develop your core competencies in order to build something
solid on which you can develop a recognizable strong foundation."

“Don’t
immediately think about monetary incentives! They will come your way later.”

For e.g. Mr. Liew is
an Civil engineer by training and started his career as an engineer to build
camps, infrastructure, airports, apartments, shopping malls and hotels. Later
the business community recognized his worth and he became CEO for Real Estate
company where his engineering knowledge and management skills is put to good
use.

Focus
on Job Performance, Not Quick Career Climb – Be Patient

“Be
Patient in your job. It is encouraging if you have big ambitions, but take your
time. Most of you will have 40 years or more in your working life. Unless, of
course you plan to retire very early in your 40s, when you should ordinarily
speaking still be peaking. It would be wasteful if you choose to stop work
prematurely, since so much human capital has been invested in you. And believe
me, you will be bored to death if you let up too early in life. There is no
need to rush to peak in your career climb.”

“Life
is not about rushing to your final destination and then doing nothing. It is
the journey that matters.”

“Take
your time, enjoy your work and career journey. I have witnessed many talented
people peaking very early in their life and sadly, failing off just as soon.”

“Do
not ever take short cuts and always dream or plan how to get the next promotion
or become the next CEO. Many times, you will probably end up doing worse or
doing the wrong things in life.”

Mr. Liew also advised
that in our first job, we should stay focused, learn and perfect our skills. He
advocates to create value for yourself and become a competent and capable
professional. To add further, he emphasized that we must “always build to
invest in our own human capital.”

Stay
Disciplined

“Develop
strong discipline in whatever you do. I believe you cannot do anything great or
achieve much in life if you don’t have strong personal discipline. I have not
come across a CEO who has no personal discipline.”

“When
I job-interview young people, I find that not many do their regular exercise
and they don’t read enough. Many confess that they don’t even read the local
papers. No time, no interest, or just no discipline.”

“Only
when you conduct yourself with discipline, then you can impose disciple on
others…”

Mr. Liew at age 69,
still get up at 6am daily to job 5-6km to keep fit and healthy. He also read 2
local and 3 international papers every morning, before going to office.

Adopt
and Stick to Your Core Values

“Good
core values can serve as a moral compass when you have to make decisions in
your job. It is your DNA. When you become more senior in your job, you will
have learn to exercise discretion in lots of important decisions, sometimes in
circumstances which are not clearly black or white. Your core values should
guide you in your judgements and decisions. You will at least know what are the
absolute no-nos.”

“Never,
never touch money which is not yours.”

“Better
be poor but proud” – Philip Yeo (Perm Sec)

Mr. Liew think that
universal core value is “High Integrity”. He had
seen many bright talents broken down in their career and life, because their
integrity is compromised.

Build
Your Character, Not Just Resume

Mr. Liew recommended
books such as “The Road to Character”
from David Brooks, a philosophical journalist.

“You
will finally be judged by other people not only on your abilities, which
contribute to external success, but also on the worth of your character – ‘Eulogy Virtues’.” – David Brooks

“Eulogy
virtues will ultimately define your inner life.”

Your
Working Mindset – 5Ps

Paranoia

Perseverance

Perfectionism

Passion

Pragmatism

1. Paranoia

In Singapore, it is
known as Kiasu and Kiasi, which Mr. Liew thinks it is nothing to be ashamed
because being paranoia forces him to
plan ahead to deal with even the most remotely possible adversity. It also
forces him to also foresee unexpected but large impactful events, which
economists call “black swans.”

2. Perseverance

Mr. Liew advised that
we should not give up too easily and achievements take time and sustainable
efforts.

“I
recall being patient in my first job, which was, I must admit, very boring. I
didn’t really like doing a maintenance job in Mindef, but I persevered, learnt
from it and got promoted and progressed. On hindsight, I did learn something
from persevering in the first few years of doing a maintenance job.”

3. Perfectionism

“To
me, being a perfectionist does not necessary mean you will get complete
perfection. It means striving to get the best results, give the set of
circumstances you have to deal with.”

“The
question for perfectionist to always ask is whether his work can be improved or
can he get an even better outcome. Sloppiness and carelessness have no place in
great achievements.”

4. Passion

“If
you don’t have passion for what you do, don’t do it. Quit and do something
else. If you don’t have passion, you will not be a perfectionist and you can’t
persevere.”

5. Pragmatism

“Pragmatism
is about finding practical solutions to problems without blind adherence to
doctrines, mantra or ideology, and yet be uncompromising in your values
system.”

Mr. Liew mentioned
both Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and Mr. Lee Hsien Loong have highlighted the need of
pragmatism for Singapore to survive.

9 comments:

Most of you will have 40 years or more in your working life. Unless, of course you plan to retire very early in your 40s, when you should ordinarily speaking still be peaking. It would be wasteful if you choose to stop work prematurely, since so much human capital has been invested in you. And believe me, you will be bored to death if you let up too early in life.

I think this part has many arguable factors because not everyone is career driven. Some prefer less working hours, , some more family time, some for volunteer calling, some for personal interests and others.

Human Asset is like this. You don't keep moving up after some years; you are condemned. That is why our Financial Assets must complement our Human Asset and finally overtake human asset so that we can put our condemned Human Asset to junk yard. LOL!

Excellent article, I like the part about "There is no need to rush to peak in your career climb"....I think too many people in Singapore are not patient on this aspect, tend to always look out only towards next promotion and do not think about expanding scope of work, overseas experience, taking on different responsibilities...thinking that these might slow down them down, contrary...this might make them even stronger for an even better career later...

:-) Absolutely! This is also the part that catch my attention the most, to put up this article.

I personally had witnessed many so-call more "competent in their work and also hardworking chaps, but lack the "stamina" and "patience". Common traits will be blaming the jobs, the superiors, companies... Sometimes there can be so many possible exposures in the company that they themselves never notice or never suggest.

Even if it is really a lousy company or boss but somehow they forget to blame themselves for choosing the job in the first place!

Acknowledgement of mistakes in working career or life is utmost important and a true virtue!

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This blog and its contents contain the opinions and views of me. It is not a recommendation to purchase or sell the stocks of any of the companies or investments herein discussed. If a reader requires expert financial advice, a competent professional should be consulted. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information contained herein the blog and its contents. Other than being the shareholders of some of the stocks discussed herein at the time of writing, I am not in any way related to the company mentioned within the blog. I specifically disclaim any responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, professional or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any contents of this blog.